He’s right about one thing. He shouldn’t trust anyone. He’s turned his back on too many people. And those he hasn’t turned against know how fickle he is.
This is a frustrating piece. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of history knows that you can’t just report on what fascist movements say then fact check it (which is what WaPo is doing here). JD Vance doesn’t give a single shit about workers, and the facts don’t matter. It’s about aesthetics. The American fascist movement, like all such movements, is interested in appropriating the very real grievances of workers into a spectacle that serves power rather than challenges it. Walter Benjamin calls this the aestheticization of politics.
Fascism attempts to organize the newly proletarianized masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate. Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves. The masses have a right to change property relations; Fascism seeks to give them an expression while preserving property. The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life.
Please be very careful to separate old-Vance who seemed to actually be pretty solidly pro-labor from neo-Vance the bootlicking Rhemora attached to Trump at the hip.
The GOP is a fucking labor disaster. I applaud them when they’re attacking corporations (like Josh Hawley grilling Boeing) but they are an existential threat.